


I see you running

by edourado



Series: Hell's Kitchen Chronicles [114]
Category: The Punisher (TV 2017)
Genre: Drabble, F/M, Light Angst, kastle - Freeform, post DD season 3
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-01
Updated: 2018-12-01
Packaged: 2019-09-05 06:26:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 781
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16805242
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/edourado/pseuds/edourado
Summary: Frank finds her, even when she runs





	I see you running

**Author's Note:**

> This is a prompt for carrythesky, who wrote a beautiful piece for a prompt that I sent her. It follows her story, so you should read that one first. 
> 
> These are part of the little bunch that I posted on Tumblr, but failed to post here. Here it is now.

She’s sitting on the floor when he walks in, her hair up in a knot on the top of her head, twisted in a weird angle, a rag in her hand, trying to wipe in between the shelves of an old looking book case. He can see the cord of her earbuds, connected to a device in her back pocket.

He almost tumbles at the sight of her. The breath leaves him and it takes his strength with it.

She’s ok. She’s alive. She’s fine.

Frank opens his mouth to call her name, but his voice doesn’t come. Instead, he locks his knees and stands there on the doorway, watching as she twists and moves her arm, wiping the piece of furniture he is almost sure she picked up from a flea market somewhere.

He knows she is gonna be startled when she puts her arm down and straightens her back, letting the rag fall on the floor beside her, and moves to get up.

Her name leaves him in a breath the same time she stands up and turns around towards him.

“Karen”, he hears his own voice, and it feels like a prayer.

She coils, sucking in a breath, her arm lifting, stumbling back onto the shelf she had been cleaning.

But it only lasts a second.

Karen recognizes him instantly, and all his strength is back, suddenly, there’s blood running through him again, making his legs move, and he takes a step towards her.

She runs to him, the small space of the miniscule apartment stretching for miles and miles, and he stretches his arms to catch her, and maybe he’s religious again. It’s the uptenth prayer that he finds himself saying ever since she picked up that phone at four in the morning.

Karen nearly knocks him over, but his feet are planted on the ground, his arms are around her, his hand on her hair, her own arms around his shoulders, and she’s sobbing against him.

“I got you”, he says, squeezing her so tight, thanking the God he stopped believing long ago for her, solid against him. Finally. “I got you, I got you.”

She sobs and holds him right back, clinging for dear life, and he promises, right there, that he would never let go again. Not ever.

He can’t do this without her anymore. This, life, going day by day, it’s not worth it if he can’t call her and look at her and feel and see and hear her right there in front of him, tangible, close, with him, with him, with him.

There’s no him without her.

“You never do this again, you hear me?” he tells her, putting her back down and holding her face with both his hands, making her look at him, her face wet with tears, eyes big and red, and the sniffs make his heart tighten. “You never, ever, vanish on me, ever again. Yeah?”

She blinks and nods, hands closing around his wrists, his thumbs wiping the tears that keep on falling.

“Jesus Christ”, he breathes out, leaning in to press his forehead against hers, just like once upon a time. “You near damn killed me, you know that?”

“Sorry”, she says, and her breath smells like coffee.

“Why didn’t you call me?”

“I- I don’t know, I’m- I was scared, I didn’t want to involve you, I don’t want anyone else to get hurt because of me, Frank, I couldn’t do that to anyone else, I couldn’t do that to you-”

And her voice breaks one more time, the sobs choking out of her, and Frank pulls her to him, to feel her warmth, to reassure her, to feel her heart beating against his and let her feel his beating right back.

His mouth touches hers, urgent and fierce, and he feels right, for the first time in forever, the world stops turning, twisted, around him, it stands still.

He tastes the salt of her tears, the coffee she had not too long ago, feels the give of her lips under his.

Once he moves back, she sniffs again, and her face follows his, her hands in fists, his coat caught in them, and he opens his mouth this time. Lets his tongue taste her, lifts his hand to cradle her head, the other holding her tight against him. 

Frank takes a few more moments before letting her go, reassuring himself, over and over, that she’s here, he has her, she’s ok, he’s ok.

They’re ok.

Her eyes are filled with tears still, when he looks in them again. His hand on her cheek, he silently pledges his life to hers.

“Let’s go home.”


End file.
